Donald Mackenzie of F1's major stakeholder CVC says that the spectacular United States GP demonstrated that the sport can still put on a great show when the circumstances are right.

"I was pleased for Lewis, and also for the fans. I came from England, I was worried about coming all this way and it not happening! So it was great that it came off, and it was a brilliant race.

"And it also shows you that with the right ingredients, F1 is still fantastic. Close racing. You saw that the Red Bulls with less power and more grip were right up the front, until the slicks came on."

Mackenzie is a keen supporter of Bernie Ecclestone's push for a budget twin-turbo V6, which will be formally announced this week.

"I know Bernie would like an alternative to the big two. The current situation isn't that healthy. If we can go to a good alternative engine at the right price, we'll be very pleased."

Meanwhile, he denied Ecclestone's regular assertion that CVC is obliged to sell its F1 stake soon, and that something could happen before the end of this year.

"No, we're not obliged to sell. It's unlikely that we'll be here forever, but we're definitely not obliged to sell. Bernie often says things he doesn't mean."

Ecclestone sorry for Austin spectators

Ecclestone, meanwhile, said he felt sorry for the US GP spectators whose weekend was spoiled by the weather.

The F1 boss admitted that he was relieved that the race was finally run, as at some points during the weekend there were doubts about it.

On Saturday fans were locked out while FP3 took place.

"It was good wasn't it?," Ecclestone told Motorsport.com. "When you think about it, if we had talked about this on Friday, we wouldn't have been so excited. Really, this morning it may have been that we couldn't have had a race.

"So everything was good in the end. I think everybody enjoyed it, it was a good race, and the result was a big question mark right until the end."

Regarding the fans, he said: "Everything was pity yesterday with the rain, everybody suffered. I feel sorry for the spectators, but there's not much we can do about it."